Mirror with Triangular Edge and Design of Two Deities, Two Animals and Band of Four Tutelary Animals

With designs like Taoist immortals or sacred beasts expressing the Chinese idea of perpetual youth, mirrors with a triangular rim are called triangular-rimmed deity-and-beast mirrors. These have been excavated in large numbers from burial mounds dating to the beginning of the Kofun period, and many of them are presumed to be imported via ocean transport from Wei China but because there still haven’t been any other excavations of these outside of Japan, some theorize that all of these mirrors were made in Japan. This mirror is exceptionally well cast, it shows two gods (King Father of the East and Queen Mother of the West) with flanking attendants, opposite from the image of two beasts, and in between, in keeping with Shenxian thought, images that depict a crow, a toad, Mount Penglai, and an incense burner fashioned in the shape of the mountain that is home to Queen Mother of the West. The designed strip has one of the characters 「天」「王」「日」「月」 (sky, ruler, sun, and moon) carved in the place of the four cardinal directions respectively.